


The Reason

by TheOtherBucket



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:20:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24192709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOtherBucket/pseuds/TheOtherBucket
Summary: Crimson Flower route.The Imperial Army has orders to march on Fhirdiad at dawn.  Byleth has a moment to herself and a lot on her mind.An expansion of the S-Support selection scene before the last chapter.
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth/Hubert von Vestra
Comments: 5
Kudos: 67





	The Reason

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first non-work-related piece of writing I've done in over a decade but it wouldn't leave me alone until it was written.
> 
> Constructive criticism welcome.

Byleth made her way out of the room that had become the home of the Imperial war council over the last few months. Emperor Edelgard had gathered her closest advisors and generals just after the midday meal, and a quick glance out the windows on her way to the courtyard told Byleth that most of the day had been forfeit to the impromptu meeting, as the sun was already low on the horizon. 

She had only been half surprised when Edelgard announced that the army would be marching on Fhirdiad at dawn. There had been murmurings among her troops for at least a week. A messenger had quietly been dispatched to begin preparations as chaos broke out among members of the council, many of whom thought more time would be needed to launch an effective assault. Edelgard had held firm, citing the importance of maintaining the element of surprise.

Byleth would never admit out loud that she had stopped paying attention halfway through, once the rough strategy had been decided and individual assignments handed out. She had always done her best work in the heat of the moment, and that had not changed with the addition of a fancy title. She also still struggled to see herself in her newly appointed role of General and she often found herself running errands or performing menial tasks as if she were still a fledgling professor and not the face of the Imperial Army.

Her feet carried her across the courtyard and before she knew where she was headed, she was standing before the gates at the marketplace. There was a sudden tightness in her chest and a buzzing in her skull. She nodded her acknowledgment to the gatekeepers without really seeing them, walking straight out of the gates and into the nearby woods.

When she was far enough from the gates that she could no longer hear the bustle of the marketplace, Byleth stopped and took a deep breath, feeling some of the stress of the last hours draining from her. She had known the orders would be coming eventually, but leaving the room and seeing supplies carted from one corner of the monastery to the other brought a new sense of urgency she had lacked when simply watching Hubert move wooden pawns over a map.

She chose a nearby tree and unceremoniously flopped onto her back in the grass. Bathed in the amber light of sunset, the leaves danced about in the breeze and she found herself mesmerized by its simple beauty. She swallowed the knot in her throat. It was hard to believe that a peaceful scene like this could coexist with the chaos currently unfolding across the continent. If she concentrated, the blossoms dropping from the trees didn’t seem as much like ash falling over the battlefield.

The longer she lay there the easier it was for her to believe that none of this was happening. To forget the atrocities she had committed in the name of Edelgard’s vision: the faces of friends felled by her blade, twisted by fear and anguish; the inhuman screams of entire battalions razed by magic; the haunting silence of a battlefield the next day. 

She closed her eyes again and focused on a bird chirping overhead. Willing the thoughts of war away, her mind drifted to more peaceful times, before her students had grown to become advisors and generals.

Out of all of her students, Hubert had been the hardest to get to know. He had tested her, threatened her, and kept a wall between them until it was clear to him that Byleth truly cared for Lady Edelgard. 

A smile flitted across her features as she recalled the first time she’d invited Hubert to tea. She hadn’t known about his preference for coffee and he’d nearly spit the beverage out, mumbling to himself about leaf-flavored water. To her surprise he’d continued to accept her invitations, and before long they had established a weekly routine of meeting in the shade of the gardens after class. Once, she’d brought a board game she’d found on a trip to town and he’d spent the afternoon patiently teaching her the mechanics.

She recalled the look on his face when the archbishop had ordered Byleth to kill Edelgard that day in the Holy Tomb. He steeled himself for her to become the enemy he had anticipated she would eventually become, but when she’d instead stepped between Rhea and Edelgard, Sword of the Creator at the ready, Hubert had looked at her with a kind of bewildered gratitude. He had thanked her for protecting the Emperor, but what Hubert hadn’t known was that Edelgard wasn’t the reason she’d stayed. 

Byleth’s eyes shot open.

Edelgard wasn’t the reason, she realized. The reason she prepared herself to take on the Church and the Kingdom both - the largest army Fodlan had ever seen.

The breeze picked up, bringing the first notes of evening chill with it. Byleth pulled the ring from her coat pocket and held it up to examine it in the fading sunlight. She could count on one hand the number of times it had not been on her person since her father’s death. It had become something of a talisman in his absence; a reminder of who she was supposed to be, who everyone _needed_ her to be. 

She remembered her father’s words the day he’d gifted her the ring: 

_“One day, I hope you’ll give this ring to someone you love as well as I love her.”_

She hadn’t put any real thought into what he’d said at the time. She had simply accepted the ring as a token of her father’s love. The kind of love her father often spoke of having with her mother had seemed something far away and altogether out of reach for her. Until now. 

Until him.

Byleth stood to dust the grass off her coat. She smiled sadly and pocketed the ring. It would be best to get back before someone noticed she was missing.

One thing became clear to Byleth as she made her way back to the monastery in the fading daylight: her father’s ring belonged to Hubert von Vestra.


End file.
